Oracle Touts Exalogic as Cloud in a Box

Oracle opened its Oracle OpenWorld conference will the announcement of Oracle Exalogic which combines server, storage and networking technology together with Oracle enterprise software to create a "cloud in a box," a solution that will go up against offerings from IBM, HP and Cisco.

Chief Executive Larry Ellison opened Oracle's annual technology and user conference on Sunday by revealing Exalogic, which combines server, storage and networking technology with Oracle's software, that companies will use to run their business applications.

Oracle competes with European software giant SAP AG (SAPG) and International Business Machines (IBM) (NYSE:IBM) in the business software and database products markets.

It also vies with hardware vendors such as Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) after a multi-billion dollar purchase of Sun Microsystems earlier this year.

Ellison attempted to wrest control of the term "cloud," a word that's meaning is the subject of much debate, as he described Exalogic as a "cloud in a box."

"The whole idea of cloud computing is to have a pool of resources that is shared amongst lots of different applications inside your company," he said.

He said Exalogic takes advantage of virtualization technologies and is elastic enough to meet surges in demand for computing power within companies.

Ellison hopes to double the size of Oracle's hardware business, taking share from IBM and others.